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Will Bush give Katrina rebuilding jobs... to illegal aliens?

Posted Mon, Sep 12, 2005 at 7:46 am

Recent actions by our American president will make it easier for illegal aliens to take Katrina rebuilding jobs. Now, in our America, those jobs should go to American citizens, with those affected by the hurricane at the front of the list. That's just proper public policy.

But, of course, in the America of the GOP elite, things are a little bit different.

First, from this comes word that "U.S. officials have suspended for 45 days a requirement that employers check workers' identification." Some survivors of the hurricane will have lost their IDs, but that will also make it even easier for illegal aliens to gain employment.

And, Bush has suspended the Davis-Bacon Act. Federal contractors in the affected region now don't have to pay the prevailing wage, which is around $9 an hour. That Act was suspended in a wide Gulf Coast region including... three counties in south Florida: Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe.

About 250,000 of those displaced by Katrina have come to Texas... "Skilled people will certainly find jobs, [but] in terms of unskilled jobs the labor market is pretty tough," [Daniel S. Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Austin] said.

...Over the past few years, the state's unemployment rate has remained around 5 or 6 percent, but that figure does not reflect the increasing competition in the market for low-skill jobs, Hamermesh said. In Texas, those jobs -- mainly in hotels, restaurants, manufacturing and construction -- often are filled by the state's large population of first-generation immigrants from Mexico, he said...

Of course, a very large part of those "immigrants" are actually illegal aliens.

Last week, Americans for Tax Reform, an organization founded by long-time Republican activists Grover Norquist, sent Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao a letter [PDF file] asking that she suspend the Davis-Bacon Act in order to free taxpayers from paying too much for the disaster clean up and management. Wednesday, Representatives Tom Feeney (R-Florida), Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colorado), sent Bush a similar letter, stating that the Act drives costs up and "effectively discriminates against non-union contractors."